For administering inhalable pharmaceutical formulations of active substances, the patient uses hand-held, manually operated inhalers in which the pharmaceutical active substance formulation is contained in an inhaler cartridge. The inhaler cartridge consists of an external aluminium cartridge and a plastic container inserted therein, the plastic container being produced by co-extrusion and comprising a rigid outer container and a flexible inner pouch disposed inside it. In order to create a pressure equalisation opening between the inner pouch and the outer container, an opening is formed in the relatively rigid outer container by the so-called cut-crack-open process, for example. The plastic container is filled with the pharmaceutical active substance formulation and sealed, and inserted into the aluminium cartridge during the manufacturing process to form the inhaler cartridge. In a subsequent step, a deformed wall region is formed in the aluminium cartridge in the upper region of the inhaler cartridge thus assembled, this deformed region bearing on the outer surface of the plastic container inserted in the aluminium cartridge. To form the attachment region on the upper edge of the aluminium cartridge a drawing process is used in which a rotating drawing tool moves with its working aperture for the tool from above over the attachment region to be formed on the aluminium cartridge and thereby brings profiled drawing rollers arranged around the working aperture for the tool into contact with the outer surface of the aluminium cartridge, in order to shape the attachment region by axial movement. Then in another manufacturing step the aluminium cartridge is applied in gastight manner against the outside of the plastic container disposed therein, which is filled with a pharmaceutical active substance formulation.
In the case of a shaping tool known in the art, comprising a rotatable base member with profiled bending rollers arranged on a circular track and rotatable about a rotation axis, the bending rollers are moved in a radial pivoting movement in one plane from a maximum working aperture for the tool into a minimum working aperture for the tool. This shaping tool has proved problematic in its reliability and susceptibility to breakdown.